This weekly Snippets column is a collection of short items: responses to posted articles, practical self-sufficiency items, how-tos, lessons learned, tips and tricks, and news items — both from readers and from SurvivalBlog’s editors. Note that we may select some long e-mails for posting as separate letters.
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This came to us by way of Whatfinger.com: Man Stranded For 3 Days On Uninhabited Bahamas Island Is Rescued By Coast Guard.
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Ferd spotted this news: Missing Tennessee couple found after eight days in Alaskan wilderness — just two miles from car. Ferd’s comments:
“Overconfidence and ‘familiarity’ breeding contempt of nature. No inventory of what they took or had with them. Strange that they were lost for eight days.”
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Reader P.G. had these comments, upon reading my article titled: Lessons From a Hard Disk Crash:
“Education never stops, especially with technology. I’m sure you are not committing this error, but many of the uninitiated probably are: No matter how convenient it may be, never use “the cloud” for backups. Ever. “The cloud” is just a catchy name for “some unknown guy’s computer in some unknown place.”
Maintain your own backups, multiple copies in multiple secure locations, protected against intrusion, fire and “stray electrons.” Unfortunately, ‘protected against government action’ must be now included in that list.”
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SaraSue sent this snippet:
“I was under the weather for a couple of weeks. I actually wanted to “give up” on the farm. I dreamed of a beachfront condo with no responsibilities. Thankfully, I weathered that tiny storm of doing chores in spite of feeling poorly, in horrid summer heat and humidity. Speaking of storms we’ve had numerous severe weather events. I finally got someone to take down a blown apart fence that got worse with each storm, and cart it away before it blew into a window, an animal, or a neighboring farm. There’s still a large tree down out near the barn, but it’s not in the way, and thankfully did not fall on the barn. I need to get a tree person out here to take down the dead trees in that area so I don’t lose that very much needed barn.
I processed 30-40 lbs of peaches, turned extra homemade butter into Ghee for shelf-stable butter oil, and re-prioritized the Never Ending To Do List. I had previously processed probably 100 lbs of tomatoes and a case or two of berries. The next big processing day will be Fall apples. My potato harvest was small, so I need to stock up on storage potatoes (carrots, onions, garlic) as well.
I am waiting for a mason to come out and fix my chimney (again). Rain was trickling inside the fireplace with the last couple of storms. I think the entire chimney needs to be “skimmed” with mortar, but we’ll see. I’m enjoying having endless water with the new well after rationing water for 2 years. After the new well was connected, I had to troubleshoot electrical outlets in the house, which also affected the garage freezers and refrigerator, and my dryer blew a fuse. All that is taken care of now.
I had one of my cows inseminated for the second time, treated one cow who got mastitis in one quarter (no need to call the vet because I had supplies on hand – yay), and am in process of selling one of my dairy girls. She will go to another wonderful family as soon as she is confirmed bred. I hate to let her go. The idea of “one is none, two is one, and three might get you there” in regards to milk cows, translates into more cows to feed, and less of me to go around. So I’m cutting back before winter because I have a couple calves coming in the Spring. This is all new to me so I’m trying to find the balance and not be “overstocked” on the land I have or “overworked”. Otherwise, reviewing the supplies inventory, reorganizing freezers, and making room for more beef. It feels strange to be prepping for winter (barns cleaned, hay stacked, etc) in August! I did not plant a fall garden, and since my two years of garden failures are plaguing me, I’ve come upon the plan to build garden beds rather than planting in the soil. In really good news, several large elderberry bushes popped up this year and have yielded quite a bit of elderberries. I’m not looking forward to winter, per se, but am looking forward to Fall cool downs. Keep going y’all!”
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Over at The Federalist: I Rented A Tesla For A Week And Am Totally Sold On Gas-Powered Cars.
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Some interesting observations on a couple of new compact carbine designs from our friend Commander Zero’s Notes From The Bunker blog: JAKL and AR-180.
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H.L. sent this: Who’s Behind the Push for ‘Digital Drivers Licenses’ in the U.S. and Mexico?
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